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Privacy Commissioner Seeks Public Input on Consent Model

June 29, 2016

On May 11, 2016, Privacy Commissioner Daniel Therrien announced the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (“OPC”) would seek public input on the issue of how Canadians can give meaningful consent to the collection, use and disclosure of their personal information in an increasingly digital age. The OPC has released a discussion paper (“Report”) on considerations related to "enhancing" the consent model under the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (“PIPEDA”) and a notice of consultation and call for submissions inviting all interested parties to answer specific questions related to the Report and also to provide any thoughts on issues raised. The deadline for submissions is July 13, 2016.

The Report also focuses on challenges that both businesses and individuals face when it comes to providing meaningful consent in an era of Big Data and the Internet of Things (“IoT”):

The consent model of personal information protection was conceived at a time when transactions had clearly defined moments at which information was exchanged. Whether an individual was interacting with a bank or making an insurance claim, transactions were often binary and for a discrete, or limited, purpose. They were often routine, predictable and transparent. Individuals generally knew the identity of the organizations they were dealing with, the information being collected, and how the information would be used…[N]ew technologies and business models have resulted in a fast-paced, dynamic environment where unprecedented amounts of personal information are collected by, and shared among, a myriad of often invisible players who use it for a host of purposes, both existing and not yet conceived of. Binary one-time consent is being increasingly challenged because it reflects a decision at a moment in time, under specific circumstances, and is tied to the original context for the decision, whereas that is not how many business models and technologies work anymore.

The Report goes on to offer several possible solutions to the problems in the current consent model and poses questions for reflection for the public consultation process.

The Suggested Changes

While noting that “[c]onsent should not be a burden for either individuals or organizations, nor should it pose a barrier to innovation and to the benefits of technological developments to individuals, organizations and society”, the OPC’s proposed “enhancements” to consent will likely cause concerns for business.

A great deal of the focus in the proposed reform revolves around creating processes that simplify complicated concepts such that individuals will be able to readily comprehend and appreciate the purposes to which their personal information may be put.

The proposed solutions are intended to address several specific challenges, including making informed consent and information related to privacy preferences more readily comprehensible individuals, creating “no-go zones” or “proceed with caution zones” to protect particularly vulnerable groups in high risk sectors, devising accountability processes that include independent third parties, placing a greater emphasis on fairness and ethical balance with regards to the use of personal information, and stronger regulatory oversight of privacy protection that includes enforcement mechanisms that can be implemented for deterrence purposes.

Proposed Enhancements to Consent

The Report advocates for privacy policies that lack opacity and privacy preferences that can be managed with greater ease through the following mechanisms and considerations:

Greater transparency in privacy policies – through communicating privacy information at integral points in time to increase the ease with which a consumer can understand the flow of information and utilizing layered privacy policies that are simultaneously inclusive and intelligible.

Managing privacy preferences across services – through the use of an independent third party that screens and controls preferences and the related release of personal information.

Technology specific safeguards – through built in compliance mechanisms and broadly constructed recommendations for best practices, including comprehensive disclosure requirements to consumers both pre- and post-purchase.

Privacy as a default setting – whereby privacy is an inherently integrated component by default.

What this means to business remains to be seen. “Layered” privacy policies will, at a minimum, require most organizations to rewrite their current their policies and add an additional layer of technological administration. The call for “dynamic, interactive data maps and infographics, or short videos” is unlikely to be met with enthusiasm by business, either. While the goal of transparency and readability is laudable, it is doubtful that consumers will spend any more time on these items than they do on existing text-based policies.

The use of an independent third party to manage privacy preferences across devices places the burden for doing so squarely on business. In this proposal, users would associate themselves with a standard set of privacy preference profiles offered by third parties and these third party websites would then vet apps and services based on the user’s privacy profile. It seems unlikely that these proposed third parties would offer this service for free.

Proposed Alternatives to Consent

The Report contemplates practicable alternatives to the traditional approach to consent, such as the de-identification of data and types of information that may not necessarily require consent, as well as the necessary changes to the applicable legislative framework that may be required for implementation.

De-identification – While the anonymization of information necessarily strips it of the contextual factors related to personal information that necessitate consent, the increasing sophistication of both data sets and the methods for analysis leave concerns about the value of this approach as a privacy protection mechanism.

“No-Go Zones” – Areas or zones of personal information of vulnerable groups whose data would be subject to a limited level of processing or potentially a complete prohibition.

Legitimate Business Interests – Situations in which personal data could be processed for a legitimate purpose that would no longer require consent unless another fundamental right necessarily required it.

Proposed Governance Considerations

The Report advocates for a greater level of accountability associated with ensuring the adequacy of privacy protections, encouraging transparency and assuring that best practices are being implemented consistently. This would include codes of practice that function to create transparent obligations and suggestions for best practices by using privacy trustmarks to create accountability mechanisms by which regulators can evaluate and designate organizations as compliant, as well as ethical assessments and autonomous organizations with specifically delineated goals focused on protecting the privacy of individuals.

Proposed Enforcement Models

While the Report considers situations in which self-regulation at both the industry and organization level may be appropriate, it also strongly suggests that there is a need for independent oversight, with accountability facilitated through fines and the ability to create orders, as opposed to recommendations, in order to maximize effectiveness. While independence is seen as the cornerstone of any regulatory body in the future for ensuring privacy and meaningful consent, the Report focuses on a proactive compliance model that would serve a stronger deterrent purpose than that of the OPC as it exists today.

What Does this Mean for Businesses?

In the era of the IoT and Big Data, traditional conceptualizations of consent processes no longer necessarily apply. The OPC has expressed concerns about opaque consent processes that individuals don’t actually read or comprehend, and has indicated that the solution to this may include sector specific regulation on the collection and use of data as well as the associated consent processes utilized in obtaining personal information. Many businesses may need to both re-visit and re-word existing privacy policies and consent protocols in order to increase transparency, as well as the accessibility and intelligibility of the policies surrounding data and the purposes to which personal information will potentially be put.